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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and How Stuff Works and I love

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Speaker 1: all things tech. And you know what, many video games

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Speaker 1: never really rise to a level of notoriety that gets

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Speaker 1: them attention outside of gaming circles, you know, into the

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Speaker 1: main stream. But once in a while, a video game

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Speaker 1: does do that. It manages to burst free of its

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Speaker 1: confines and then next thing, you know, everyone knows about it,

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Speaker 1: or at least recognizes little elements that are common to

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Speaker 1: that video game. So games like Pac Man or Donkey Kong,

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Speaker 1: lots of people know about those. Well. Recently, the video

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Speaker 1: game Fortnite has managed to do this and burst out

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Speaker 1: of those small niche adiences of video gamers. Millions of

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Speaker 1: people play Fortnite. Millions of people will watch other people

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Speaker 1: play Fortnite, either in tournaments or in live stream sessions

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing. There are hundreds of videos of

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Speaker 1: people talking about the game or doing some of the

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Speaker 1: notable dances that are featured in the game. Epic Games,

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Speaker 1: which developed and published Fortnite, made three billion dollars in

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Speaker 1: revenue in eighteen, largely because of that game. There are

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Speaker 1: a lot of stories about Fortnite, some of which criticize

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Speaker 1: how the game seemingly lifts elements from other games and

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Speaker 1: pop culture memes without compensation or credit. But where did

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Speaker 1: this game come from and how did it become so

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Speaker 1: popular so quickly? Well, I'm going to do my best

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Speaker 1: not to turn this into an episode that's secretly about

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Speaker 1: Epic Games, the company that aches and publishes Fortnite, but

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Speaker 1: it would be a good idea to get a quick

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Speaker 1: rundown of that studio and what was going on when

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Speaker 1: the company first announced development on Fortnite. So here's the

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Speaker 1: super quick version of Epic games history. Maybe in the

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Speaker 1: future I'll do a full episode about Epic Games and

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Speaker 1: will really dive into the details. But back in a

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Speaker 1: college student named Tim Sweeney launched a computing consulting business

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Speaker 1: called Potomac Computer Systems. It became clear that the business

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Speaker 1: was going to require more work and time than Sweeney

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Speaker 1: could dedicate to it while also doing his college studies,

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Speaker 1: So around that same time he also got interested in

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Speaker 1: developing games, and he created a somewhat primitive computer game

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Speaker 1: called z z T. It was a simple top down

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Speaker 1: computer RPG style game with as key art, and he

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Speaker 1: released this game under that Potomac computer or system's company name.

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Speaker 1: But Sweeney also released some code that made it possible

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Speaker 1: for gamers to take this game and modify it themselves.

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Speaker 1: And word quickly spread throughout the old computer bulletin board

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Speaker 1: system communities, and the game was a modest hit. It

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Speaker 1: actually did fairly well. The success inspired Sweeney to pursue

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Speaker 1: game development on a larger scale within the shareware community.

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Speaker 1: Shareware is a method of distribution in which a developer

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Speaker 1: allows some portion of their work to be distributed freely

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Speaker 1: as much as people like. So you can make copies,

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Speaker 1: you can give them to your friends, and there's no penalty.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong about that. Typically this software has some

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Speaker 1: sort of limit built into it, so, for example, a

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Speaker 1: shareware game might allow you to play the first level

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Speaker 1: of that game for free, but then to get beyond

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Speaker 1: this limitation, you would actually have to buy the full game. Well,

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Speaker 1: Sweeney set out to create his own shareware company. He

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Speaker 1: also decided they needed a better name, and so he

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Speaker 1: chose Epic Mega Games, and he later admitted that he

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Speaker 1: chose that name, in part because it made people think

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Speaker 1: his company was a lot larger than just a single

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Speaker 1: person working out of his parents house. Sweeney began to

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Speaker 1: form relationships and work with other developers as well, like

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Speaker 1: Cliff Blazinski sometimes known as Cliffy B. He was another

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Speaker 1: young video game enthusiast who was eager to get into

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Speaker 1: that industry. Um he was in high school when he

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Speaker 1: first started to right to Sweeney and work with him.

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Speaker 1: The company would release several games over the next couple

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Speaker 1: of years, including a video pinball game and a game

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Speaker 1: called jazz Jack Rabbit that ended up being very popular.

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Speaker 1: But things really picked up in Now This was Right

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Speaker 1: at the Dawn, a video game graphics cards, three D

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Speaker 1: game design, and first person shooters like Castle, Wolfin's Line

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Speaker 1: and Doom, both of which were from ID Software. Sweeney

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Speaker 1: and his team decided to develop their own game engine

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Speaker 1: and three D first person shooter, a game they called

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Speaker 1: it Unreal. It was an incredibly ambitious project, and they

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Speaker 1: released the game and the game engine in after several

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Speaker 1: years of development. The Unreal engine was an industry triumph,

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Speaker 1: easily matching up against the more seasoned id's Quake two

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Speaker 1: engine and the Unreal Engine would become one of the

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Speaker 1: standard game engines used throughout the industry. It's cemented Epic

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Speaker 1: Games as a quote unquote real video game company. Epic

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Speaker 1: would go on to release games like the Gears of

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Speaker 1: War franchise, which was incredibly successful and the company did

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Speaker 1: well in the two thousand's. Now this brings us up

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Speaker 1: rapidly as we skip over a lot of details to

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Speaker 1: two thousand eleven and the start of the story around

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Speaker 1: Fortnite itself. In two thousand eleven, Epic is wrapping up

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Speaker 1: on its own Epic trilogy, which has since grown beyond

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Speaker 1: three games, and the company was really celebrating they had

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Speaker 1: just finished Gears of War three. The first Gears of

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Speaker 1: War game was for the Xbox three sixty back in

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Speaker 1: two thousand six. Gears of War two followed in two

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Speaker 1: thousand eight, and Gears of War three finally came out

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Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. The trilogy follows a human military

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Speaker 1: force fighting off an alien invasion and centers around a

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Speaker 1: protagonist named Marcus Phoenix, and Part three wrapped up Phoenix's storyline,

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Speaker 1: and so in order to create a sense of closure

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Speaker 1: and transition, the company held a game jam now, a

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Speaker 1: game jam is like a hackathon. Developers team up with

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Speaker 1: each other. Sometimes they work with people that they've never

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Speaker 1: worked with directly before. Sometimes they'll take on new roles

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Speaker 1: on the team that they normally wouldn't on a project,

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Speaker 1: So a programmer might become the art director for a

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Speaker 1: game jam. Their goal is just to create a fun

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Speaker 1: game within a certain amount of time, such as forty

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Speaker 1: eight or seventy two hours. They have to come up

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Speaker 1: with a concept developed the gameplay, the mechanics, the art,

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Speaker 1: the music, everything else, and then they show it off

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Speaker 1: to each other and it helps inspire creativity and outside

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Speaker 1: the box thinking and gives developers a chance to experiment.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it can create the earliest version of a future game.

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Speaker 1: A short time after this game jam, some of the

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Speaker 1: Epic team began talking about a possible future game that

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Speaker 1: would become Fortnite. The Fortnite itself wasn't actually spawned directly

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Speaker 1: from the game jam. It wasn't one of the games

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Speaker 1: developed during that uh that that project, but the experience

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Speaker 1: of the game jam lad the team to talk about

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Speaker 1: possibilities now. The team imagined a game in which players

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Speaker 1: would control a human survivor of a zombie apocalypse, and

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Speaker 1: this would be a multiplayer game, so they could team

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Speaker 1: up with other players and increase their odds of survival.

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Speaker 1: They would traverse a world ruined by this apocalypse, and

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Speaker 1: they would other resources, scavenging and harvesting them from stuff

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Speaker 1: like trees or rocks or houses or whatever. Then they

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Speaker 1: could use that material to construct bases to protect themselves

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Speaker 1: from zombie hordes which would spawn at night. It was

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Speaker 1: sort of combining elements of several other games that already existed,

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Speaker 1: stuff like Minecraft and Left for Dead. Producers have also

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Speaker 1: cited the game Terraria as one of the big influences

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Speaker 1: in their early development. The goal was to create a

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Speaker 1: survival building game and marry it to a third person

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Speaker 1: or a first person shooter game, and make sure that

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Speaker 1: both of those elements were designed well and fun to play.

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Speaker 1: The view of the team was that most games, generally

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Speaker 1: in that space, we're good at one thing but not

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Speaker 1: the other thing. So building games were really good at building,

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Speaker 1: but weren't so great at combat. Combat games were great

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Speaker 1: at combat but not so good at building. They wanted

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Speaker 1: the best of both. Now, there's no definitive source that

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Speaker 1: I could find about when Fortnite became an ef shoal project,

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Speaker 1: but it sounds like there were serious discussions around this

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Speaker 1: idea starting sometime in August two eleven. Initially, the thought

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Speaker 1: was to create a game with a dark, gritty tone,

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Speaker 1: really you know, kind of of of foreboding art style,

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Speaker 1: But the team decided that they wanted something that would

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Speaker 1: come across more timeless, not to mention, a style that

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Speaker 1: wouldn't put as heavy a strain on computer processing power

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Speaker 1: or development time. If you make it more realistic, you've

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Speaker 1: got to figure all that stuff out, so they opted

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Speaker 1: for a brighter, more cartoonish approach. The name Fortnite came

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Speaker 1: out of an email thread where they were just debating

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Speaker 1: on what they should name this game. Since the goal

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Speaker 1: was to survive a zombie attack each night by building

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Speaker 1: a protective base. Someone suggested Fortnight as a possibility, and

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Speaker 1: it clicked, and they decided to announce the game just

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Speaker 1: a few months later after they had decided to actually

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Speaker 1: make it. This would be in December two thou eleven,

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Speaker 1: at the Video Game Awards show on on Spike TV.

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Speaker 1: Well at that point, the team had only been actively

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Speaker 1: working on the game development for three weeks. There was

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Speaker 1: no game yet. Cliff Blazynski, now the design director at Epic,

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Speaker 1: took the stage for the reveal. The announcement included a

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Speaker 1: video showing off the idea for this game, with characters

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Speaker 1: rushing into a town to scavenge, then heading back to

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Speaker 1: build a tower base just before a group of zombies

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Speaker 1: would attack. The whole thing was a cinematic It was

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Speaker 1: not gameplay. There was no game to show off at

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Speaker 1: that point. It was just the idea for a game.

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Speaker 1: A year later, Epic would be a very different company.

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Speaker 1: A three thirty million dollar investment would hand over a

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Speaker 1: significant but technically minority stake of ownership of the company

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Speaker 1: to a Chinese conglomerate. Game designer and self promoter. Cliff

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Speaker 1: Blazynski would leave the company, and the Fortnite game would

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Speaker 1: undergo some changes early in its development. I'll explain more

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Speaker 1: into the second, but first, let's take a quick break

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Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Okay, time for a quick check

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Speaker 1: in with Epic Games. Circa mid two thousand and twelve,

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Speaker 1: Fortnite was now well and truly in development, and the

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Speaker 1: company projected a release date sometime in two thousand thirteen.

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Speaker 1: The public knew about the game thanks to those two

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Speaker 1: thousand eleven Video Game Awards announcements, and Cliff Lazynski was frustrated.

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Speaker 1: He was finding it difficult to convince people that his

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Speaker 1: ideas for new games were viable. And then you have

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Speaker 1: a Chinese company called Tencent Holdings Limited make a huge

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Speaker 1: deal that Epic just couldn't refuse. Ten Cent, and a

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Speaker 1: press release on Epic Games as website was described as

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Speaker 1: quote a leading provider of Internet and mobile and telecom

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Speaker 1: munications value added services in China end quote. Today it's

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Speaker 1: the world's largest gaming company, as well as a contender

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Speaker 1: for one of the top social media companies in the world.

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Speaker 1: Since its founding in it has had a long history

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Speaker 1: of investing in other companies. It's much better known in

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Speaker 1: China that is in the United States. But trust me,

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Speaker 1: this company is a huge deal. It was during this

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Speaker 1: time that several important people left Epic Games, among them

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Speaker 1: producer Rod Ferguson. He left Epic to go work on

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Speaker 1: a game called BioShock Infinite with Irrational Games, and Cliff Blazynski,

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Speaker 1: who felt he had hit this creative roadblock at Epic

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Speaker 1: and he wanted to try his hand at creating his

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Speaker 1: own studio. That story is a pretty fascinating one in

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Speaker 1: its own right, and someday I'm going to have to

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Speaker 1: talk about his experiences and what happened, because it was

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Speaker 1: one of those tragic stories of failure in tech that

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Speaker 1: I think still sting a lot of people to this day. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: their departures gave the gaming community concern about the future

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Speaker 1: of Fortnite. Everyone identified these guys as being leaders. This

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Speaker 1: was in a time when some game developers were very

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Speaker 1: public figures like Cliffy B, and they were sometimes known

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Speaker 1: for living like rock stars. Cliffy B certainly embrace that

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Speaker 1: lifestyle and that portrayal, so a lot of people thought, well,

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Speaker 1: without them there, what's going to happen to this game?

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Speaker 1: Who is still at Epic Games that can help this

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Speaker 1: project stay on track? Now, I think this is one

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Speaker 1: of the big problems with the cult of personality mentality

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Speaker 1: in general, not just for video games but for everything,

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Speaker 1: because it tends to put all the focus on one

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Speaker 1: or two rock stars, and it ignores the hard work

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Speaker 1: and contributions of countless people who makes stuff possible. And

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Speaker 1: so typically this means we have a unrealistic view of

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Speaker 1: what's happening the people who are rock stars are in

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Speaker 1: fact remarkable. For the most part, they are talented people

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Speaker 1: who do a lot of work. But it still does

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Speaker 1: the rest of the team a disservice to assume that

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Speaker 1: if someone person leaves, the whole project's going to fall apart. Still,

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Speaker 1: the departures were definitely an issue that the game development

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Speaker 1: team had to take into account. Meanwhile, the three thirty

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Speaker 1: million dollars that ten Cent provided to Epic gave them

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Speaker 1: plenty of safety net for what the company planned to

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Speaker 1: do next. While still developing games, Epic prepared to make

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Speaker 1: a big shift in how it generated revenue. One of

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Speaker 1: the most lucrative assets the company had was its Unreal

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Speaker 1: Games Engine, which many other developers would rely upon when

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Speaker 1: they were building out their own games. Traditionally, a company

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Speaker 1: would have to pay a subscribe shin fee for the

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Speaker 1: use of the Unreal Engine. Epic released Unreal Engine four

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Speaker 1: in March two thousand fourteen, and a year later, Epic

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Speaker 1: made it free to download. The plan was to step

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Speaker 1: away from focusing only on triple A titles from big

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Speaker 1: publishers and to leverage the growing community of smaller developers.

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Speaker 1: The new revenue generating strategy was a royalties agreement, so

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Speaker 1: instead of a set monthly subscription fee, companies would pay

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Speaker 1: out five percent of royalties for any commercial application of

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Speaker 1: the Unreal game engine that earned more than three thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars per quarter. So if your project didn't earn at

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Speaker 1: least three thousand dollars per quarter, you weren't charging anything.

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Speaker 1: This was part of a major shift in the video

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Speaker 1: game industry as a whole. Back to Fortnite, it didn't

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Speaker 1: take long into the development process for the designers to

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Speaker 1: realize that they needed more elements to make the game

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Speaker 1: they wanted to create. Originally, they thought about making a

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Speaker 1: building game and releasing it super fast, But while testing

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Speaker 1: and building the game, they realized that they needed some

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Speaker 1: more components to make the game fun. To play an

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Speaker 1: important element in any video game, As it turns out,

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Speaker 1: some people tend to forget that. During the development process,

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Speaker 1: they decided they needed some stuff like progression, in which

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Speaker 1: players are rewarded for doing well in the game, maybe

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Speaker 1: a skill tree, or being able to improve items and equipment.

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Speaker 1: The game had a sort of RPG component to it,

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Speaker 1: and so the company began to seek out developers who

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Speaker 1: had worked in that space because they didn't have expertise

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Speaker 1: in RPGs and they wanted to find people who could

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Speaker 1: contribute to the game's development. With that in mind, and

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Speaker 1: the release of Unreal Engine four changed things for the

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Speaker 1: development team as well. Initially they had been using Unreal

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Speaker 1: Engine three. They chose to abandon that and go with

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Speaker 1: the latest version of the game engine, which meant some

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Speaker 1: of that early work needed to go as well. They

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Speaker 1: had borrowed a lot of assets from a lot of

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Speaker 1: their earlier games games like the Gears of War franchise,

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Speaker 1: while all of that needed to be tossed aside, they

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Speaker 1: had to redevelop things. All of this meant the game

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Speaker 1: was taking longer to finish than the team had initially planned.

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Speaker 1: One of the big game elements that emerged during this

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Speaker 1: turmoil was the actual building mechanic in the game. Initially,

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Speaker 1: the idea was that building structures in the game should

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Speaker 1: include some sort of mini game or extended activity, such

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Speaker 1: as maybe just standing in place and holding down a

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Speaker 1: button as the structure goes up. So imagine that you're

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Speaker 1: trying to build a wall, and you start, you pick

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Speaker 1: the wall from your list of options, and you see

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Speaker 1: an outline on your screen, you place the outline where

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Speaker 1: you want to go, and then you hold down a

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Speaker 1: button while this wall starts to assemble. The team figured

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Speaker 1: out this wasn't very much fun and it was antithetical

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Speaker 1: to the fast pace of a shooter. If you have

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Speaker 1: a fast action game, you can't have your back turned

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Speaker 1: to all the action and try to build a wall.

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Speaker 1: So the decision was made that game characters would have

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Speaker 1: schematics that would allow them to build certain structures, and

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Speaker 1: all they would have to do is select the appropriate

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Speaker 1: schematic and the location for the build, and then hit

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Speaker 1: a button and that was it. It would just build itself.

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Speaker 1: The game would construct the structure for you, assuming that

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Speaker 1: you had the raw materials necessary to build whatever it

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Speaker 1: was you wanted to build. You meanwhile, could run along

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Speaker 1: and you could build the next section, or shoot enemy

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Speaker 1: players or actually, at that time, it wasn't even enemy players.

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Speaker 1: It was uh enemy AI because it was a p

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Speaker 1: v or player versus environment game, so players could spend

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Speaker 1: less time building individual components like a section of a

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Speaker 1: floor or a wall, and they could build entire bases

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Speaker 1: very quickly, like within a minute or so. Those environments

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Speaker 1: were also destructible. The pre existing and vironments were destructible.

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Speaker 1: The stuff that players built were destructible, So anything that

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Speaker 1: you saw in the game, you could, in theory breakdown

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Speaker 1: or it could be destroyed by the enemy forces attacking you.

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Speaker 1: Players would harvest resources from structures, so you could run

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Speaker 1: up to a house and just start whacking at it

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Speaker 1: with like a pick axe and start taking materials. That way,

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Speaker 1: enemies can knock structures down, and that Bick needed a

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Speaker 1: lot of talent to work on the game to create

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Speaker 1: all the structures and elements in those destructible environments. So

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Speaker 1: if you thought, well, we're gonna have a house here,

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Speaker 1: what sort of stuff goes in the house? Bookshelves, couches, television's, radios, microwaves, refrigerators, stoves,

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Speaker 1: all these sort of things were assets that had to

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Speaker 1: be built in the game, so they started hiring people

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Speaker 1: to build those assets. As this was happening, the designers

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Speaker 1: began to shape the game to make it more cartoonish

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Speaker 1: and the Fortnite aesthetic began to emerge. Designers began to

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Speaker 1: create progression strategies for tools in the game game and

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Speaker 1: incorporated more science fiction elements into the design, and the

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Speaker 1: general philosophy was that no idea would be outright denied,

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Speaker 1: but the team would deliberate on which elements should receive

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Speaker 1: attention first, and the plan was to continue this process

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Speaker 1: once the game hit release, it would get updates for

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Speaker 1: as long as people were playing the game. The developers

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Speaker 1: would listen to the community of players, and the community

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Speaker 1: would tell the developers which elements they should focus on next,

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Speaker 1: and they would provide more content. That was the plan

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Speaker 1: well from the earlier stages of development. The plan was

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Speaker 1: to make the game an ongoing projects, so this was

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Speaker 1: not something new. This was something they had thought about

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Speaker 1: for a while. In fact, there were announcements that Cliffy

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Speaker 1: b had made before he left the company about how

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Speaker 1: the company was going to act as kind of like

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Speaker 1: a dungeon master or game master for role playing game.

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Speaker 1: They would create new scenarios, tools, monsters, challenges, that kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff for the community. All that was decided on

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Speaker 1: while the game was still being made. The Epic team

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Speaker 1: in North Carolina was in charge of the project, but

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Speaker 1: they also worked with satellite offices in Seattle and Poland

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Speaker 1: to bring it all together. I watched a great video

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Speaker 1: from Game Informer that published in April two thousand fourteen,

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Speaker 1: it's available on YouTube, so if you go and search

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Speaker 1: for Fortnite and Game Informer, you should be able to

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Speaker 1: pull that video up. And they mentioned that the game

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Speaker 1: development team around that time was around hundred ten people.

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Speaker 1: The video of gameplay in that interview literally polished. This

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Speaker 1: was two thousand fourteen. Interestingly, the game wouldn't actually launch

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Speaker 1: for three more years. Epic held a closed alpha test

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Speaker 1: of the game on December one, two thousand fourteen. Only

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Speaker 1: a few thousand people could participate, and it was meant

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Speaker 1: to give Epic feedback on how gamers played the game

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Speaker 1: that they had designed and what they might have to

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Speaker 1: fix or tweak based upon actual people playing the game.

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Speaker 1: A second closed alpha test followed in March two thousand fifteen,

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Speaker 1: and the plan then was to open up a beta

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Speaker 1: test in the fall, but instead Epic chose to go

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Speaker 1: with a closed beta, meaning it was invitation only. They

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Speaker 1: limited the participation to around fifty thousand players. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: until July two thousand seventeen that gamers at large finally

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Speaker 1: got their hands on Fortnite. Even then, the game was

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Speaker 1: released in early access, and it wasn't the version of

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Speaker 1: Fortnite that everyone tends to talk about today. I'll explain

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Speaker 1: more in just a moment, but first let's take another

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Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsor. So why did it

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Speaker 1: take so long for Fortnite to launch? If that documentary

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Speaker 1: back in two thousand fourteen showed gameplay that looks almost

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Speaker 1: identical to what the game is today, what was taking

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Speaker 1: so long? Well, part of it was that Epic was

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Speaker 1: developing the game as a service. The original plan was

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Speaker 1: to release Fortnite as a free to play game and

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Speaker 1: then include content that players could only access if they

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Speaker 1: paid for it, so you would have in game purchases.

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Speaker 1: You would be able to play the game for free,

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Speaker 1: but if you want some of the bells and whistles,

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Speaker 1: you would have to cough up dough in order to

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Speaker 1: get it. Also, Epic began work on another title around

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Speaker 1: that same time called Paragon, and the two games were

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Speaker 1: competing for in company talent and time and resources, so

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Speaker 1: when the game did release in early access, it required

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Speaker 1: would be gamers to pay for that privilege. By the way,

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Speaker 1: Paragon would end up being released first, and then Epic

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Speaker 1: would focus on Fortnite, and then eventually Epic would shut

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Speaker 1: down Paragon. It was a project that did not did

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Speaker 1: not meet the success that the company had hoped for,

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Speaker 1: so the early access version of Fortnite was called Save

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Speaker 1: the World. This was pretty much what the original concept

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Speaker 1: had been years earlier. Players would gather resources and use

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Speaker 1: those resources to build forts and then defend those forts

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Speaker 1: against zombies. The company said it intended to offer Save

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Speaker 1: the World up as a free to play game sometime

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Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen. This was in two thousand seventeen.

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Speaker 1: Skip ahead now it's early two thousand nineteen as I

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Speaker 1: record this, and it still has not happened. The basic

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Speaker 1: version of Fortnite that player versus environment, Save the World

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Speaker 1: version is thirty nine dollars cents for the standard version.

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Speaker 1: The Deluxe edition, which contains more character models and weapons

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Speaker 1: plus some other stuff, is fifty nine dollars and ninety

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Speaker 1: nine cents. So one of the things Epic Games has

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Speaker 1: done has create a lot of different character models, a

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Speaker 1: lot of different weapons, a lot of different emotes. U uh,

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Speaker 1: these various elements that allow you to customize your character

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Speaker 1: to some extent, to a great extent, but it's almost

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Speaker 1: like baseball cards. You have to collect them in order

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Speaker 1: to be able to use them. But a different version

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Speaker 1: of Fortnite did launch as free to play, and it's

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Speaker 1: this version that really captured the attention of a lot

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Speaker 1: of gamers. This is the famous Battle Royal mode, which

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Speaker 1: Epic released in September two thousand seventeen, just a few

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Speaker 1: months after Save the World entered early access. Now, if

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Speaker 1: you're not familiar with Battle Royal or Battle Royal, if

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Speaker 1: you prefer style games, i'll summarize. The name comes from

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Speaker 1: a Japanese film called Battle Royal, in which a class

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Speaker 1: of students is transported to an island and then they

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Speaker 1: are forced to fight to a last man standing competition.

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Speaker 1: The administrator for the competition designates certain areas on that

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Speaker 1: island as being safe zones save zones, just meaning that

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't automatically be killed if you were there, and

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Speaker 1: other areas on the island go to becoming off limits,

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Speaker 1: and if you are there when it goes off limits,

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Speaker 1: they're automatically killed off. Now, if this sounds a lot

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Speaker 1: like another story called Hunger Games, well it's no big

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Speaker 1: surprise Hunger Games that that those books came out after

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00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,440
Speaker 1: Battle Royal had had come out, and they both cover

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Speaker 1: very similar territory. One Brendan Green, a video game player

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Speaker 1: and mod maker who uses the handle player Unknown, oversaw

434
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: a new game called Player Unknowns Battlegrounds, sometimes known as

435
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: pub G. This game was based off of some mods

436
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:38,439
Speaker 1: that Green had created for other games, and these mods

437
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:42,359
Speaker 1: all made a battle Royal started game mode for for

438
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 1: these various games it created it, the games didn't natively

439
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 1: support it, so Brendan Green built mods that allowed it

440
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,160
Speaker 1: to happen. And typically the way it works is that

441
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: you have a map, and you have group of players

442
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 1: who are all competing against each other. I they're solo

443
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,399
Speaker 1: or in teams, and they're all in different parts of

444
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 1: the map, and a section of that map, typically designated

445
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 1: by a circle, is the safe zone. Being outside the

446
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: safe zone means you start taking damage a certain amount

447
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: of damage per unit of time, and the goal is

448
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: to be the last player alive at the end of

449
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: the match. The game became enormously popular very quickly, despite

450
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,680
Speaker 1: the performance issues and bugs. People famously talked about how

451
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:35,440
Speaker 1: they would have the most incredible beast of a video

452
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:39,120
Speaker 1: game rig and still struggled to run pub G at

453
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: at its highest settings. Now Epic must have been paying

454
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: really close attention to how popular pub G was becoming

455
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 1: because this was right around the same time that they

456
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: were releasing the Save the World version of Fortnite, and

457
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,879
Speaker 1: so they launched their own Battle Royal mode in September

458
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: two seventeen, and it closely resembled pub G's approach. It's

459
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,320
Speaker 1: incredibly similar. In fact, it was similar enough that it

460
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: prompted Cheong Han Kim, who was a games developer and

461
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 1: a businessman who had become the CEO of the pub

462
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 1: G corporation, to criticize Epic Games and to threaten legal action,

463
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: and in January two eighteen, pub G filed a lawsuit

464
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: against Epic Games and then dropped it six months later,

465
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:29,920
Speaker 1: and they didn't really comment on why they dropped the case. Now.

466
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,800
Speaker 1: One reason Kim might have been worried about Fortnite is

467
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: that pub G relies upon the Unreal Engine for its

468
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 1: games engine, so pub G developers sometimes have to work

469
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: with Epic support to implement new features for the pub

470
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: G game. So the worry was that Epic might find

471
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: out about pub G's plans for upcoming features, and then

472
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: Epic could rush to implement similar features into Fortnite and

473
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: released them before pub G could do it. Undercutting the competition.

474
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: It didn't take very long for Fortnite to catch up

475
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: to pub G and then to pass it in popularity.

476
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:08,680
Speaker 1: The fact that it was a free to play game

477
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: gave it a big boost. Because pub G is not

478
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: free to play. If you want to play pub G,

479
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 1: you have to go and purchase the game, just like

480
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: you would for a normal video game or any other

481
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: most other video games. Fortnite, however, is different. You can

482
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: download the Fortnite Battle Royal game for free and start

483
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: playing right away, but if you want certain in game items,

484
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: certain weapons, skins, characters, emotes, if you want to get

485
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: a very specific dance, then you have to pay extra.

486
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 1: You have to do that those in game purchases, and

487
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: lots of people were doing that. Not only that, but

488
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: Fortnite became one of the most popular games to watch

489
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: someone else play, primarily through these streaming service Twitch players

490
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 1: with handles like Tofu t f U E and Ninja

491
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: rack up mill millions of viewer hours on the streaming

492
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: service as they play games, and that elevated Fortnite's profile further.

493
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: It also helped that Epic would open up Fortnite so

494
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,960
Speaker 1: that would play on other platforms Originally it was to

495
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: be PC only, but then it went Mac and PC

496
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: and now it's also available for consoles and mobile devices.

497
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,280
Speaker 1: And to be clear, pub G didn't invent Battle Royal.

498
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: I don't want to make the claim that pub G

499
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:33,479
Speaker 1: created this game mode and Fortnite stole it, and the

500
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 1: Battle Royal version and pub G and the Battle Royal

501
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: version in Fortnite don't exactly play the same way, not

502
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 1: not entirely. Fortnite is cartoonish, the physics are not nearly

503
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: as realistic. It's a faster paced gameplay, this little swimmier

504
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: than pub G is. And the fact that you can

505
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: build stuff in Fortnite, you can construct barriers and ramps,

506
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: and you can get over mountains this way. You can't

507
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: do that in pub G. It creates a totally different

508
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:08,240
Speaker 1: gameplay experience than you would find in pub G or

509
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: other Battle Royal games. So there are elements to Fortnite

510
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: that really said it of heart. So lots of other

511
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: games have also got similar Battle Royal modes, including the

512
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 1: most recent Call of duty game Black Ops four with Blackout.

513
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: So I don't want to suggest that you know pub

514
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: G has a an exclusive right to the Battle Royal

515
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: game Mode, but that people were criticizing Epic Games, saying,

516
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: it looks to me like the game that you had

517
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 1: promised for years and years and years wasn't doing as

518
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: well as you wanted, so then you copied a game

519
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: that was doing really well, and that's how you were

520
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: able to turn it into a success. Whether that's true

521
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: or not, you do have to admit that Fortnite is

522
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 1: an enormous success. Also, the lawsuit between pub G and

523
00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 1: Epic Games, that's not the only legal headache that Epic

524
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:03,480
Speaker 1: has had to endure thanks to this runaway success of Fortnite.

525
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:05,959
Speaker 1: One of those things that you can purchase in the

526
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 1: game would be an emote or an action that you

527
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: can choose your character to make based upon a keystroke.

528
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,880
Speaker 1: So you might have emotes that are like a particular pose.

529
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: But in Fortnite, the emotes that are really famous are

530
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: the various dances. Epic has created animations of numerous dances,

531
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: some of which were already famous memes, and therein lies

532
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: the problem, well, one of the problems. The other problem

533
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 1: is that there's some really litigious folks out there who

534
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: are hoping for a meal ticket, I think, but there's

535
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 1: fault on all sides, I would argue. So one of

536
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: the dances you can purchase, at least at one time,

537
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 1: was called Fresh, which was a nod to the source

538
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 1: of this dance, the television show Fresh Prince of bel Air.

539
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 1: In that show, Alfonso Ribero, who played the character at Carlton,

540
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: did an iconic dance to Tom Jones's song It's not Unusual.

541
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: Fortnite didn't lift the song, but it did lift the dance,

542
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: and Alfonso has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming

543
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:13,400
Speaker 1: they're capitalizing on his celebrity and didn't give him any

544
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: credit or compensation. Actor Donald Fazan pointed to another instance

545
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 1: in which Epic Games had included animation that copied a

546
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: dance he did in the television series Scrubs Terrence to Millie.

547
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 1: Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for using his

548
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 1: Millie Rock dance. Anita Red, acting on behalf of Russell

549
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 1: Backpack Kid Horning, filed a lawsuit because of the game

550
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 1: using the floss dancing move, which Horning had made famous.

551
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 1: In an airing of Saturday Night Live, Katy Perry was

552
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: playing a song and she threw a whole lot of

553
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,880
Speaker 1: focus towards Horning, who then did the Flaws dance. It

554
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 1: went totally viral and became a huge meme of itself.

555
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, he didn't invent that dance. You

556
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: can just do a quick search on YouTube and you

557
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: will find there are lots of videos that well pre

558
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,200
Speaker 1: date that Saturday Night Live performance, one going all the

559
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: way back to two thousand ten of people doing that dance.

560
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 1: So my guess is that particular lawsuit won't go very

561
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 1: far ultimately once they're able to show that this kid

562
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: didn't create that dance, and that while that that particular

563
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live episode might have elevated everyone's awareness of

564
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 1: the philosophy, it's not like that kid has any claim

565
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: to ownership of the dance. The cases, however, bring up

566
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 1: a question can a dance be copyrighted? Can you copyright

567
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: dance moves? As of the recording of this podcast, that

568
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 1: remains a pretty unanswered question. And also there are a

569
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 1: lot of people point out that there's a long history

570
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:56,880
Speaker 1: of of various artists doing dances and making them famous

571
00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 1: and and profiting from them without having a actually invented them.

572
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 1: Beyonce has lifted lots of dances from from films. Michael

573
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: Jackson did not invent the moonwalk, but he sure did

574
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 1: make it famous, So I'm not sure that this particular

575
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,799
Speaker 1: argument will go much further. However, it has led to

576
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:22,720
Speaker 1: a lot of people criticizing Epic Games in Fortnite for

577
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:28,720
Speaker 1: taking content or taking performances and not crediting the people

578
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 1: who originally made those performances famous. So let's sum up Fortnite.

579
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,800
Speaker 1: It's a video game that was conceived in and shown

580
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 1: off way too early. Epic Games has admitted they talked

581
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,880
Speaker 1: about this game far too early in the in the process,

582
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 1: it didn't go into a closed alpha until two thousand

583
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:53,440
Speaker 1: and fourteen, transition to a closed beta in and stayed

584
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,600
Speaker 1: that way until going into early access as a player

585
00:35:56,719 --> 00:36:01,280
Speaker 1: versus environment survival game in they you'd have to actually purchase.

586
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: Later that year, a new variant that was free to

587
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: play and one that closely resembled another game came out,

588
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: propelled the entire title into the spotlight, and now it

589
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:17,240
Speaker 1: is a true phenomenon. The Fortnite Tracker network currently tracks

590
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 1: more than fifty seven million, five hundred thousand players of

591
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: the game. Some estimates for the total number of players

592
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: across all platforms runs as high as eighty million. Now,

593
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:33,359
Speaker 1: Epic uses its own game launcher on the PC rather

594
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,320
Speaker 1: than going through valves Steam Service, which does allow for tracking.

595
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 1: That means Epic doesn't have to share revenue with Valve

596
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:44,280
Speaker 1: because they're not selling their game or using valves Steam

597
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 1: Service for that purpose. And the popularity of Fortnite has

598
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,360
Speaker 1: allowed Epic to launch its own video game store to

599
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: rival Steam, and Epic is offering up incentives like a

600
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:59,280
Speaker 1: lower revenue cut than what Valve demands for featuring games

601
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:02,840
Speaker 1: in its store, and it's also offering up other incentives,

602
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,800
Speaker 1: so if a developer uses epics Unreal Engine, they get

603
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:11,879
Speaker 1: more bonuses for listing their game in Epics game Store. Now,

604
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,280
Speaker 1: some gamers might complain that Fortnite isn't a quote unquote

605
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:19,040
Speaker 1: serious game, or maybe that it lifts too many features

606
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 1: from other sources without credit, or that they aren't playing

607
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: in Steam, and because Steam is the established video game

608
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:29,759
Speaker 1: store that irritates people personally. I think that competition is

609
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:32,880
Speaker 1: always a good thing, but there's no denying that the

610
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: game has become an enormously powerful force in pop culture

611
00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:41,320
Speaker 1: in general and gaming in particular. As the company's name attests,

612
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 1: it is truly Epic. At some point in twenty nineteen,

613
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,800
Speaker 1: the save the World mode is supposed to go into

614
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: free to play mode. At that point, Epic will rely

615
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,920
Speaker 1: entirely on in game purchases to generate revenue from Fortnite,

616
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: But the game has already paid off in large amounts,

617
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,360
Speaker 1: and if Epic Game Store is successful, it will likely

618
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: go down as one of the biggest wins in video

619
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: game history. That's something worth dancing about. Well. That wraps

620
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:14,319
Speaker 1: up this look at Epic Games is Fortnite and the

621
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: phenomenon it has created. If you guys are Fortnite players,

622
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,759
Speaker 1: or you have any specific thoughts on the subject, or

623
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:23,960
Speaker 1: maybe you have a suggestion for a future episode of

624
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,239
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, get in touch with me. Send me an

625
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:30,960
Speaker 1: email the addresses tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com,

626
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: or go to tech Stuff podcast dot com. You can

627
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:36,520
Speaker 1: find the archive of our older shows there and other

628
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 1: ways to get in touch with me on social media.

629
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 1: Don't forget to pop on over to our merchandise store

630
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,320
Speaker 1: that's over at t public dot com slash tech Stuff.

631
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: Every purchase you make goes to help the show, and

632
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 1: we greatly appreciate it, and I'll talk to you again

633
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics,

634
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: because it how stuff works at home, wh